Teenager tells James O'Brien why Brexit will affect young peoples' mental health
31 January 2020, 17:31 | Updated: 31 January 2020, 17:33
This 17 year old caller told James O'Brien why Brexit will affect young peoples' mental health - he said despite not wanting to leave the EU, young people are the "majority stakeholders in Brexit" and it'll affect them the most.
Jim who is 17 wanted to address the mental impact Brexit and the political climate is having on young people.
He said the whole Brexit "scandal" is going to be "really damaging to the future of this country" and people don't seem to realise.
Young people are the "majority stakeholders in Brexit" as this will affect their lives the most as the next generation, Jim pointed out.
He referenced a previous caller: "People like that have decided the future of our country and where we're going. I think the country is being controlled by right wing extremists and I think it's normalised racism."
He said as a young person, "we don't hold the political knowledge as these people do so we're struggling."
Jim did say, however, that he'd learnt how important trade links with the EU are and by coming out of the European Union the UK is greatly limited; voters don't consider this, he said.
James referenced Michael Gove who today made it pretty clear that "there is going to be friction in the future for our trade with what is currently the largest frictionless trading bloc in the world."
He said he wanted to give the 17 year old optimism but today he couldn't "because even Michael Gove now is contradicting the promises that were made in the Vote Leave campaign."
"I don't know what I can do to help anymore," said James, "your perspective as a 17 year old looks a lot closer to reality than some of the perspectives currently being shared by older people."
